2012-2013: The Year in Review & the Year in Preview

Russell Brand had a big 2012, launching his stand-up show Brand X on FX and narrating the eighties send-up Rock of Ages. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for another wisecracking, eyeliner-wearing British export on American screens, and 2013 will belong to Tim Minchin. Here's how they stack up.

2012: Russell BrandExperience Impersonating a Rock StarPlayed the ridiculously named Aldous Snow in the 2010 comedy Get Him to the Greek and its 2008 predecessor Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Actual Musical Cred In addition to his memorable performances in Greek, sang "I Am the Walrus" at the closing ceremonies of the London Olympics.

Outspoken Political StanceRaised awareness about substance abuse with the BBC doc Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery and lobbied Parliament to decriminalize drug use.

2013: Tim MinchinExperience Impersonating a Rock StarPlay the ridiculously named Atticus Fetch in the sixth season of Showtime's Californication, premiering in January.

Actual Musical Cred After wrapping up a run as Judas in the U.K. revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, brings his hit musical Matilda from London's West End to Broadway in March.

Outspoken Political StanceOne of his best-known musical bits (which he often performs live) expresses his spiritual skepticism with this line about the Pope: "Fuck the motherfucker."

I've been screaming all day," Leonardo DiCaprio says from the Long Island set of Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. Taking a respite in his production office, he sounds sleepy, scratchy, and, quite frankly on this late-October afternoon, a little spent.
Gone are the days of the biennial, or at best annual, Leo movie. After assiduously turning selectivity into an art form, long exercising the power of saying no, he is tasting the freewheeling joyand painof saying yes: DiCaprio has three big films hitting theaters within the next year, and he's producing three to boot. He's coming off a year straight of wrangling, meetings, and a whole lot of acting. "This has been an exceptional situation," DiCaprio says. "Filming three movies back to back to back, I don't think I've ever done that."
Curiously, he gravitated toward a timely theme in all of them. "In a weird way," he says, "I realize these movies are about three different periods in American history, but all have a central character trying to hold on to the privileged life they've been given, by any means necessary." He says this either unaware or unconcerned that it could apply to a 38-year-old movie star who is taking risks like never before.
For the first time since appearing in Woody Allen's Celebrity in 1998, he's playing a supporting rolea villain, no lessin Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti Westerncumrevisionist slave narrative Django Unchained; he's reinterpreting the most iconic character in modern American literature in Baz Luhrmann's high-octane 3-D adaptation of The Great Gatsby; and then he's reportedly going the full monty in a group-sex scene in The Wolf of Wall Street, the no-holds-barred look at the finance world he'd been trying to get made as a producer for years. With so much conduct unbecoming a leading man, it's a wonder Damon, Cruise, et al., haven't staged an intervention. You can almost hear them: "Leo, baby, why don't you find yourself a nice action franchise and settle down?"
That's the thing about the Tao of Leo: He's managed to cast a long shadow over Hollywood for two full decades without ever bowing to conventionno big-budget franchises, no rom-coms, not even a true action movie. "I don't know why I choose certain films," he says. "I just gravitate toward them and I don't question that."
Perhaps the boldest move in DiCaprio's 20-year career is playing antebellum plantation owner Calvin Candie in Django Unchained. DiCaprio was drawn to him from the moment he read Tarantino's script. He calls Calvin "one of, if not the most, despicable, indulgent, radical characters I've ever read in my life." Naturally, DiCaprio signed on right away, and he promptly presented Tarantino with a gift: an antiquarian book on phrenology, the racist pseudo-science used to rationalize slavery. From there, DiCaprio and Tarantino made some striking modifications. "Writer-directors tend to be very precious about their material and their words," he says, "but Quentin's whole process is getting input from the actors and adding levels to their characters." Perhaps no character evolved as much as Calvin, the master of Candyland plantation. "A lot of the talks we had specifically about phrenology really took him to a completely different level."
Adding philosophical underpinnings to Calvin's racism helped unlock the character, informing his affection for his surrogate father, a house slave played by Samuel L. Jackson, and his leering need to possessas chattelDjango's wife, played by Kerry Washington. Tarantino drew on phrenology to fashion an epic, incendiary monologue on racial superiority. The moment DiCaprio finished delivering the speech, the entire cast gave him a spontaneous standing ovation. The Leading Man
Meet the emancipated Leonardo Dicaprio, a single-name superstar who's broken free of the shackles that constrain other A-listers: Don't accept a supporting role? (Too late.) Never mess with a beloved classic? (Whoops.) Under no circumstances play a bad guy? (Does a virulently racist slave o Adding philosophical underpinnings to Calvin's racism helped unlock the character, informing his affection for his surrogate father, a house slave played by Samuel L. Jackson, and his leering need to possessas chattelDjango's wife, played by Kerry Washington. Tarantino drew on phrenology to fashion an epic, incendiary monologue on racial superiority. The moment DiCaprio finished delivering the speech, the entire cast gave him a spontaneous standing ovation. The Leading Man
Meet the emancipated Leonardo Dicaprio, a single-name superstar who's broken free of the shackles that constrain other A-listers: Don't accept a supporting role? (Too late.) Never mess with a beloved classic? (Whoops.) Under no circumstances play a bad guy? (Does a virulently racist slave oMeet the emancipated Leonardo Dicaprio, a single-name superstar who's broken free of the shackles that constrain other A-listers: Don't accept a supporting role? (Too late.) Never mess with a beloved classic? (Whoops.) Under no circumstances play a bad guy? (Does a virulently racist slave owner count?)
"I apologize if my voice is outI've been screaming all day," Leonardo DiCaprio says from the Long Island set of Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. Taking a respite in his production office, he sounds sleepy, scratchy, and, quite frankly on this late-October afternoon, a little spent.
Gone are the days of the biennial, or at best annual, Leo movie. After assiduously turning selectivity into an art form, long exercising the power of saying no, he is tasting the freewheeling joyand painof saying yes: DiCaprio has three big films hitting theaters within the next year, and he's producing three to boot. He's coming off a year straight of wrangling, meetings, and a whole lot of acting. "This has been an exceptional situation," DiCaprio says. "Filming three movies back to back to back, I don't think I've ever done that."
Curiously, he gravitated toward a timely theme in all of them. "In a weird way," he says, "I realize these movies are about three different periods in American history, but all have a central character trying to hold on to the privileged life they've been given, by any means necessary." He says this either unaware or unconcerned that it could apply to a 38-year-old movie star who is taking risks like never before.
For the first time since appearing in Woody Allen's Celebrity in 1998, he's playing a supporting rolea villain, no lessin Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti Westerncumrevisionist slave narrative Django Unchained; he's reinterpreting the most iconic character in modern American literature in Baz Luhrmann's high-octane 3-D adaptation of The Great Gatsby; and then he's reportedly going the full monty in a group-sex scene in The Wolf of Wall Street, the no-holds-barred look at the finance world he'd been trying to get made as a producer for years. With so much conduct unbecoming a leading man, it's a wonder Damon, Cruise, et al., haven't staged an intervention. You can almost hear them: "Leo, baby, why don't you find yourself a nice action franchise and settle down?"
That's the thing about the Tao of Leo: He's managed to cast a long shadow over Hollywood for two full decades without ever bowing to conventionno big-budget franchises, no rom-coms, not even a true action movie. "I don't know why I choose certain films," he says. "I just gravitate toward them and I don't question that."
Perhaps the boldest move in DiCaprio's 20-year career is playing antebellum plantation owner Calvin Candie in Django Unchained. DiCaprio was drawn to him from the moment he read Tarantino's script. He calls Calvin "one of, if not the most, despicable, indulgent, radical characters I've ever read in my life." Naturally, DiCaprio signed on right away, and he promptly presented Tarantino with a gift: an antiquarian book on phrenology, the racist pseudo-science used to rationalize slavery. From there, DiCaprio and Tarantino made some striking modifications. "Writer-directors tend to be very precious about their material and their words," he says, "but Quentin's whole process is getting input from the actors and adding levels to their characters." Perhaps no character evolved as much as Calvin, the master of Candyland plantation. "A lot of the talks we had specifically about phrenology really took him to a completely different level."
Adding philosophical underpinnings to Calvin's racism helped unlock the character, informing his affection for his surrogate father, a house slave played by Samuel L. Jackson, and his leering need to possessas chattelDjango's wife, played by Kerry Washington. Tarantino drew on phrenology to fashion an epic, incendiary monologue on racial superiority. The moment DiCaprio finished delivering the speech, the entire cast gave him a spontaneous standing ovation. The Leading Man
Meet the emancipated Leonardo Dicaprio, a single-name superstar who's broken free of the shackles that constrain other A-listers: Don't accept a supporting role? (Too late.) Never mess with a beloved classic? (Whoops.) Under no circumstances play a bad guy? (Does a virulently racist slave o Adding philosophical underpinnings to Calvin's racism helped unlock the character, informing his affection for his surrogate father, a house slave played by Samuel L. Jackson, and his leering need to possessas chattelDjango's wife, played by Kerry Washington. Tarantino drew on phrenology to fashion an epic, incendiary monologue on racial superiority. The moment DiCaprio finished delivering the speech, the entire cast gave him a spontaneous standing ovation. The Leading Man
Meet the emancipated Leonardo Dicaprio, a single-name superstar who's broken free of the shackles that constrain other A-listers: Don't accept a supporting role? (Too late.) Never mess with a beloved classic? (Whoops.) Under no circumstances play a bad guy? (Does a virulently racist slave oal revolution has given rise to an unforeseen by-product: It's empowered savvy up-and-coming actors to circumvent the industry's fickle institutions and create their own career-making or -broadening vehicles. "Technology has given actors the apparatus to take something that used to be outside of their control and instead be like, 'Oh, I can shoot this and cut this myself,'" says Brit Marling, who in the past two years has cowritten, produced, and starred in the microbudget Another Earth, Sound of My Voice, and The East (coming next year), all while merely acting in well-heeled films like Arbitrage and Robert Redford's The Company You Keep. "When nobody will give you money and it's just you and an idea, you have to keep crunching and try and make it better."
Most actors wait for the star-making role of a lifetime to come along. A few have the balls to go out and write it themselves.
From left: Chris Colfer, Lauren Miller, Josh Radnor, Brit Marling
Hollywood's blockbuster-minded digital revolution has given rise to an unforeseen by-product: It's empowered savvy up-and-coming actors to circumvent the industry's fickle institutions and create their own career-making or -broadening vehicles. "Technology has given actors the apparatus to take something that used to be outside of their control and instead be like, 'Oh, I can shoot this and cut this myself,'" says Brit Marling, who in the past two years has cowritten, produced, and starred in the microbudget Another Earth, Sound of My Voice, and The East (coming next year), all while merely acting in well-heeled films like Arbitrage and Robert Redford's The Company You Keep. "When nobody will give you money and it's just you and an idea, you have to keep crunching and try and make it better."
Most actors wait for the star-making role of a lifetime to come along. A few have the balls to go out and write it themselves.
From left: Chris Colfer, Lauren Miller, Josh Radnor, Brit Marling
Hollywood's blockbuster-minded digital revolution has given rise to an unforeseen by-product: It's empowered savvy up-and-coming actors to circumvent the industry's fickle institutions and create their own career-making or -broadening vehicles. "Technology has given actors the apparatus to take something that used to be outside of their control and instead be like, 'Oh, I can shoot this and cut this myself,'" says Brit Marling, who in the past two years has cowritten, produced, and starred in the microbudget Another Earth, Sound of My Voice, and The East (coming next year), all while merely acting in well-heeled films like Arbitrage and Robert Redford's The Company You Keep. "When nobody will give you money and it's just you and an idea, you have to keep crunching and try and make it better."
Most actors wait for the star-making role of a lifetime to come along. A few have the balls to go out and write it themselves.
From left: Chris Colfer, Lauren Miller, Josh Radnor, Brit Marling
Hollywood's blockbuster-minded digital revolution has given rise to an unforeseen by-product: It's empowered savvy up-and-coming actors to circumvent the industry's fickle institutions and create their own career-making or -broadening vehicles. "Technology has given actors the apparatus to take something that used to be outside of their control and instead be like, 'Oh, I can shoot this and cut this myself,'" says Brit Marling, who in the past two years has cowritten, produced, and starred in the microbudget Another Earth, Sound of My Voice, and The East (coming next year), all while merely acting in well-heeled films like Arbitrage and Robert Redford's The Company You Keep. "When nobody will give you money and it's just you and an idea, you have to keep crunching and try and make it better."
Most actors wait for the star-making role of a lifetime to come along. A few have the balls to go out and write it themselves.
From left: Chris Colfer, Lauren Miller, Josh Radnor, Brit Marling
Hollywood's blockbuster-minded digital revolution has given rise to an unforeseen by-product: It's empowered savvy up-and-coming actors to circumvent the industry's fickle institutions and create their own career-making or -broadening vehicles. "Technology has given actors the apparatus to take something that used to be outside of their control and instead be like, 'Oh, I can shoot this and cut this myself,'" says Brit Marling, who in the past two years has cowritten, produced, and starred in the microbudget Another Earth, Sound of My Voice, and The East (coming next year), all while merely acting in well-heeled films like Arbitrage and Robert Redford's The Company You Keep. "When nobody will give you money and it's just you and an idea, you have to keep crunching and try and make it better."
Most actors wait for the star-making role of a lifetime to come along. A few have the balls to go out and write it themselves.
From left: Chris Colfer, Lauren Miller, Josh Radnor, Brit Marling
Hollywood's blockbuster-minded digital revolution has given rise to an unforeseen by-product: It's empowered savvy up-and-coming actors to circumvent the industry's fickle institutions and create their own career-making or -broadening vehicles. "Technology has given actors the apparatus to take something that used to be outside of their control and instead be like, 'Oh, I can shoot this and cut this myself,'" says Brit Marling, who in the past two years has cowritten, produced, and starred in the microbudget Another Earth, Sound of My Voice, and The East (coming next year), all while merely acting in well-heeled films like Arbitrage and Robert Redford's The Company You Keep. "When nobody will give you money and it's just you and an idea, you have to keep crunching and try and make it better."
Most actors wait for the star-making role of a lifetime to come along. A few have the balls to go out and write it themselves.
From left: Chris Colfer, Lauren Miller, Josh Radnor, Brit Marling
Hollywood's blockbuster-minded digital revolution has given rise to an unforeseen by-product: It's empowered savvy up-and-coming actors to circumvent the industry's fickle institutions and create their own career-making or -broadening vehicles. "Technology has given actors the apparatus to take something that used to be outside of their control and instead be like, 'Oh, I can shoot this and cut this myself,'" says Brit Marling, who in the past two years has cowritten, produced, and starred in the microbudget Another Earth, Sound of My Voice, and The East (coming next year), all while merely acting in well-heeled films like Arbitrage and Robert Redford's The Company You Keep. "When nobody will give you money and it's just you and an idea, you have to keep crunching and try and make it better."
Most actors wait for the star-making role of a lifetime to come along. A few have the balls to go out and write it themselves.
From left: Chris Colfer, Lauren Miller, Josh Radnor, Brit Marling
Hollywood's blockbuster-minded digital revolution has given rise to an unforeseen by-product: It's empowered savvy up-and-coming actors to circumvent the industry's fickle institutions and create their own career-making or -broadening vehicles. "Technology has given actors the apparatus to take something that used to be outside of their control and instead be like, 'Oh, I can shoot this and cut this myself,'" says Brit Marling, who in the past two years has cowritten, produced, and starred in the microbudget Another Earth, Sound of My Voice, and The East (coming next year), all while merely acting in well-heeled films like Arbitrage and Robert Redford's The Company You Keep. "When nobody will give you money and it's just you and an idea, you have to keep crunching and try and make it better."-->